Adhesive labels are known and commercially available in a variety of forms depending upon the end use for the label. In one such configuration, a sheet material in the form of a continuous roll or fan-fold stack is provided with a pressure sensitive adhesive on its rear surface and a release coating is provided on the opposite surface of the sheet. The release coating is typically a silicone material that promotes a weak bond to the adhesive so that the sheet may be readily unrolled or otherwise separated from an adjacent sheet as desired. The separated label is adapted to be repositioned or otherwise adhered onto a surface as desired. Such labels are often referred to as linerless or repositionable labels and are adapted to be secured to a first surface and then removed from that surface and selectively applied to a second surface with little to no loss of adhesive properties.
In the fast food industry, it is known to generate a customer receipt for a transaction using a conventional thermal printer that contains a roll of thermosensitive paper.
Thermal printers typically contain a print head or bar having small heated elements that are individually controlled via digital input from a computer. When a thermosensitive or thermoreactive recording material is passed under the print head or print bar of the printer and selected heated elements activated, the thermosensitive or thermoreactive color forming layers on the recording material are activated and a desired print or indicia is generated on the recording material. Thermal printers are widely used to create business forms or records.
Attempts have been made in the prior art to provide a thermally printed customer receipt having adhesive on the reverse side so that the receipt may be repositioned or secured to a surface. Such efforts attempt to reduce or eliminate adhesive buildup within the printer which can adversely affect the performance of the printer.
One prior art linerless label roll includes a series of index marks uniformly spaced longitudinally apart. A series of adhesive patches runs along the web, with differently sized adhesive-free zones therebetween in register with the index marks. This type of prior art linerless label roll is incapable of providing a repositionable label of varying length and is limited to the distance between the index marks. Further, this prior art roll requires use of an optical sensor be provided in the printer to detect the location of the index marks.
Prior art linerless label rolls which provide a continuous strip of adhesive on the reverse side of the sheet have the disadvantage in that the adhesive tends to accumulate on the moving parts of the printer and otherwise cause a feed jam.